There is a continuing need for fabrics that resist cutting and chopping with knives and other tools having sharp edges. Such fabrics are particularly useful for making protective clothing, such as gloves, for use in such activities as meat cutting and the handling of metal and glass sheets that have rough edges.
It has been found that certain kinds of fibers and yarns can be woven or knit to yield fabrics that are resistant to cutting. Yarns that have high cut resistance generally contain fibers having high tensile strength and high modulus, such as aramid fibers, thermotropic liquid crystalline polymer fibers, and extended chain polyethylene fibers.
It has also been reported in U.S. Pat. No. 5,119,512 that composite yarns containing "inherently cut resistant" high strength fibers, such as extended chain polyethylene, and "hard" non-metallic fibers, such as fiberglass, have an enhanced level of resistance to cutting. This patent also indicates at column 6, lines 24-35, that the hard fiber can optionally be non-continuous, non-uniform, or chopped, that it can alternatively be coated onto an organic fiber, or that it can be in the form of ceramic particles or fibrils impregnated into an organic fiber. Detailed information is not provided.
Copending U.S. application Ser. Nos. 243,344; 484,544; 481,020; and 482,207 all teach that thermoplastic fibers such as poly(ethylene terephthalate) and thermotropic liquid crystalline polymers can be made significantly more cut resistant by including hard particles in the fibers, and that a fiber made from a polymer such as poly(ethylene terephthalate) filled with hard particles may be as cut resistant as the high modulus fibers.